This was published yesterday. I wanted to post it though, because my recollection of watching Donohue any chance I got, for years, was that he always treated his guests, on stage and in the audience, like human beings equal to him. I saw more than one very empathetic show about trans people, about gay people, about women in various situations solely because they were women, about so many who were marginalized during the years Phil Donahue was on TV. His show, along with Oprah’s, never got into the reality show circuses that those who came behind them went with (no disrespect to Jerry Springer, who started out like Donohue, but bowed to pressure.) Anyway, here is this; Godspeed, Mr. Donahue.
Phil Donahue earned praise for his “insatiably curious and accepting” nature and his ability to hold a “mirror up to America” when he received the Medal of Freedom from President Biden in May.
The groundbreaking daytime talk show host reinvented the relationship between TV hosts and their audiences, opening the medium up to genuine conversations about race, religion, reproductive healthcare and scores of other hot topics over more than 6,000 episodes.
“He saw every guest as worthy of interest and worked to build understanding, bringing us to see each other not as enemies but as fellow Americans,” a White House announcer said of Donahue in May.
Donahue died Sunday “peacefully after a long illness,” his family said in a statement to The Times. He was 88. NBC’s “Today,” where he was a contributor, broke the news of the host’s death. (snip-More on the page linked above)
Published Aug 16, 2024 at 6:59 PM EDTUpdated Aug 17, 2024 at 2:36 PM EDT
FWIW. Mark Cuban is a billionaire, and as Tengrain says, billionaires are indicative of the flaws in the US taxation system. However, Cuban doesn’t seem to have devoted himself entirely to the dark side, as many billionaires do, and this story is fairly positive about the Harris-Walz campaign.
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Billionaire and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban promoted Vice President Kamala Harris‘ economic policies in a flurry of social media posts Friday afternoon.
Harris introduced several proposals aimed at bringing down the cost of groceries, the housing market and other essential goods during a rally in North Carolina on Friday. The Democratic nominee’s plan includes tax cuts, a federal ban on price gouging by food producers and offering down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers who qualify. As the Associated Press (AP) reported, the policies are largely built off the Biden administration’s priorities.
“As president, I will take on the high costs that matter most to most Americans, like the cost of food,” Harris told supporters Friday. “We all know that prices went up during the pandemic when the supply chains shut down and failed. But our supply chains have improved and prices are still too high.”
Cuban, a frequent critic of former President Donald Trump, shared his two cents on Harris’ proposals to X, formerly Twitter, including addressing criticism that the vice president has received for promising to go after price gouging as a way to tackle inflation. Trump has called the plans similar to “Maduro-esque price controls,” comparing the plan to the Venezuelan leader’s policies that crippled the country’s economy.
Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias wrote to X on Friday, “I’m pretty sure Harris did not in fact propose price controls on groceries—just kind of vaguely said that antitrust enforcement is good (it is good).”
Cuban responded to Yglesias’ post, “This is a fact.”
“Did you also notice that she said that the 25k credit only applies to NEW homes? Did I hear that right?” he wrote in a separate response to Yglesias.
Cuban posted another statement a few minutes later praising Harris’ plans to bring down health care and drug costs, writing, “And my favorite of course, did anyone else hear @VP say she was going to bring TRANSPARENCY to pharmacy and healthcare middlemen? The root cause of almost all that is wrong with healthcare pricing?”
According to AP’s report, Harris’ price gouging attacks include instructing the Federal Trade Commission to penalize any “big corporations” that engage in price spikes. But economists previously told Newsweek that the plan could backfire, and likely does not address the root problems of inflation.
“The idea of a political solution to an economic non-problem is flawed,” said Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics and trade at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., during an interview with Newsweek. “There’s very little evidence that corporate greed or price gouging is responsible for high grocery or housing prices.”
“Preventing price increases sounds good, but what do investors and farmers do when they can’t guarantee a return on investment or cover their costs?” Lincicome added. “They cut back on investment, leading to reduced supply and even higher prices or outright shortages.” (Note from Ali: translated, this means if we the customers deprive the owners/shareholders of their massive profits which actually are not their investments but the prices we pay, they might scoop up their marbles and go home. I’m not scared.)
Harris also attacked Trump’s economic proposals during her rally on Friday, including critiquing the GOP candidate’s calls for increased tariffs on imports.
The vice president said that Trump “wants to impose what is, in effect, a national sales tax on everyday products and basic necessities that we import from other countries.”
“It will mean higher prices on just about every one of your daily needs,” Harris added, per AP’s report. “A Trump tax on gas, a Trump tax on food, a Trump tax on clothing, a Trump tax on over-the-counter medication.”
Cuban also praised Harris as a “pro-business candidate” during his string of posts to X.
Newsweek reached out to Harris’ campaign via email for comment on Friday evening.
The volume is low. I have tried everything I know to boost it, sorry. I want to do one or more a day of these, and try to tighten them up to be shorter. Thanks for all the suggestions. I learn for what you tell me. By the way the cat came in right after I started recording again, Ron says I woke him and he was sleeping under the car. Best wishes and hugs. Scottie
You will be bombarded with folks reporting from the DNC in Chicago in the next few days, so I wanted to tell you about a rally in the heartland first. A rally that included so many rural and small town people. The Walz rally in Omaha. A midwestern meetup that made my day and gave me the hope that will sustain me until the election.
I was raised in the South…in Arkansas. It’s funny because the folks in the deep South always called into question the southerness of Razorback country. Now that I’ve been in Missouri for almost two decades, I notice that people struggle to define Missouri as a midwestern state or a southern state. That is likely owing to our past history with enslavement.
Missouri has an identity crisis. The southern half of the state seems to belong to the south…the northern part, where I live, is most definitely Midwestern. My neighbors use Jell-o and sugar and mayonnaise in so many recipes. That’s a dead giveaway.
Like Northwest Missouri, Nebraska is quintessential Midwestern. And so is Governor Tim Walz.
I had no trouble understanding the idioms and language of Tim Walz at the rally I attended in Omaha on Saturday. Friends, the rally felt like a big potluck. It was familiar and friendly and folksy and all the small-town adjectives.
It was just the feeling I need to get through the next 70-some-odd days…
The Astro Amphitheater in Omaha at capacity for the Walz rally.
I had a friend send over an email with the Walz rally information a few days ago, so I applied for a ticket and I made the list. I was told they ran out of tickets within 18 hours. And, you can see why…Tim Walz is from Nebraska and his home state was more than happy to invite him back.
The amphitheater had a chyron that said, ‘Welcome Back, Coach!”
I know Omaha fairly well as it is less than a two-hour drive and my family really enjoys visiting Old Market and downtown. I left my house around 7:30, but I didn’t get to Omaha until almost 10 because I stopped for gas, coffee, and some breakfast pizza at Casey’s. I had on my “Dirt Road Democrat” t-shirt which can garner some looks in small towns, but the lady at the Casey’s counter read my shirt and smiled. No comment necessary.
I drove to the amphitheater and found parking and then started the walk to the event space. I ran into a few folks who said, “Wait? Are you Piper for Missouri?” I kept thinking that I wish my kids were with me so they would know that I do more than Tik Toks for a living. This isn’t much of a flex…there aren’t many outspoken rural progressives so I kind of stick out.
As I stood in line, I talked to so many who had stories of the fear that red legislatures can instill and that the fear has simmered for years. The anxiety that comes from living like that is remarkable, but so is a new-found feeling of hope.
Hope in the man they were waiting to see. Governor Tim Walz.
The doors were to open at 11am, so I would be waiting for a while in the long line that was beginning to go all the way back to the field I had parked in.
While waiting in line, I was able to talk to a Nebraska librarian. She worked with others to gather signatures to keep vouchers out of the state and she spoke at length about the books legislators planned to ban — the pervasive feeling of fear when thinking about shelving books in Nebraska public schools. And then she beamed when talking about the feeling of hope that the Harris/Walz ticket brought.
I was able to meet a woman who was with her Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense group. I told her I was a member in Missouri and even started a rural group in which many of the members are gun owners. She said it was hard to keep folks interested in the cause and I know that first-hand, but the fact that Tim Walz is a sensible gun-owner who has a F-rating from the NRA, and stands proudly with those of us who just want to pass common sense gun laws, is a huge help. Common sense includes safe-storage and universal background checks. These are things that most gun owners agree with.
I talked to teachers and hospital administrators and union members and nurses and stay-at-home moms. There were t-shirts representing so many viewpoints. There were ally shirts and rural shirts and public education shirts and pro-choice shirts and Walz shirts.
There were smiles in line. There was no hate. There was no fear. There was hope.
I made it through security and my way inside the theater. The place was filling up quickly. I found a seat and the woman next to me told me she followed me on Twitter and lived outside Mount Ayr, Iowa. I drive through there all the time and even met with a group of about 30 Democrats there last year. She said she had to work or she would have come. She had on an “I’m Speaking” t-shirt. She’s rural. She’s an Iowan — you know the folks who are all supposed to be Trump voters?
I bumped into a friend working with the NE Dems who told me I could stand on the stage behind Walz. Yay! So, I got up and walked by lots of people with guns to the backstage where I could be one of the folks holding the sign, doing the smiling, and getting excited about everything a politician says. Well, I didn’t have to pretend to be enthusiastic. When Tim Walz came onstage with his wife, Gwen, and a former student, it was electric.
Governor Walz talked about rural spaces. He spoke about small towns and small schools. He introduced us to a few of his former high school classmates. He graduated with 24 people.
Walz told a joke about JD Vance likely thinking a Runza is a Hot Pocket. If you know, you know.
Walz talked about the midwestern school delicacy of chili and a cinnamon roll. We all laughed because it is a combination that we all ate in public school cafeterias. It’s a shared experience that we can all smile about.
Walz then spoke on the hurt that we experienced during a Trump presidency that seems like it was just yesterday. He talked of the hate and the discontent that oozed out with every policy and press conference. He reminded the crowd that we don’t have to go back. Trump can slip away into irrelevance. That Nebraska can return its progressive roots and elect Democrats up and down the ballot.
He spoke on abortion rights and feeding kids and health care and union wages and folks who have been left behind. Omaha could not get enough of his passion and good sense. He could barely speak at times because the theater was literally pulsing with cheers and applause.
He then spoke on something that I think about daily — public schools. As soon as he mentioned how important our educational system is to our country, the crowd erupted into a chant…
Teachers! Teachers! Teachers!
The place exploded and this is where I have to tell you that I nearly cried.
I was a teacher for 16 years and the last few were rough. I miss the kids, but the fact that everything became “political” was too much. Everything I taught could be deemed political…I taught a protest lit unit that was Board Approved and in my literature book, but I felt under the gun with each lesson.
The fact that this theater was filled with Nebraskans and Missourians and Iowans all chanting for public schools and teachers was heart-warming. I am called a “groomer” or a “pedophile” on social media at least a dozen times every day for opposing book bans and for my years in the classroom. The fact that there was so much love for teachers was uplifting. I am positive the current teachers in the theater left feeling they could start this year with something that has been missing in red states…hope.
My aim with telling you about this rally is to help you understand what is happening in small towns and rural parts of the country right now. Omaha is not a rural space, but most of the immediate surrounding areas are. I drove through two hours of cornfields to arrive at the event and so did so many others.
I wrote in another post that the vibes have changed since Joe passed the torch…it remains true and even more so.
I’ll leave you with this: I passed a homemade sign in Ringgold County, Iowa the other day. The entire county has less than 5,000 residents. The sign was planted in the yard of an old farmhouse next to a cornfield. They put duct tape over “Biden” and had written “Kamala” in Sharpie on an old Biden/Harris sign. I travel this route monthly, and have for years, and I never saw the original sign in the yard. I’m pretty sure they didn’t have it out in 2020.
That means something, friend. It’s enthusiasm. It’s hope. It’s rural and small town folks coming around. LFG.
UPDATE:Donald Trump defended his personal attacks on Kamala Harris, despite some suggestions from allies that he focus on issues of the economy and the border.
“I think I am entitled to personal attacks,” Trump told reporters at a press conference at his golf club in Bedminster, NJ. “I don’t have a lot of respect for her.”
Trump noted that Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, have been engaged in their own personal attacks, calling him and JD Vance “weird.”
The press conference appeared to be a Trump campaign effort to get the candidate to do a bit of a reset. For the first 50 minutes or so, Trump read from notes, hammering Harris on the economy as well as the border and crime. Behind him were props of household goods, designed to emphasize the rise in prices during the Biden administration.
But Trump often meandered into different subjects. A reporter asked him about reports that Harris will propose new restrictions on price gouging, something that conservative critics already have decried as price controls. Trump briefly chided Harris for the proposal, before then quickly moving to her position on fracking.
At another moment, Trump got in a swipe at CNN‘s Chris Wallace. “Not the father. There’s no resemblance between him and Mike Wallace, that I can tell you.”
Nikki Haley, Trump’s GOP primary rival who has since endorsed him, said earlier this week on Fox News that he should focus on issues. Trump said that he appreciated her advice, but “I have to do it my way.”
Fox News stayed with the remarks and the press conference. CNN carried the initial 30 minutes of remarks, cut away and then returned when Trump started to take reporters’ questions. The network cut away again about a half hour later. MSNBC skipped the press conference altogether.
PREVIOUSLY: Donald Trump opened his latest press conference by delivering an opening statement that went on … and on.
After 30 minutes, CNN cut away.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer told viewers, “We’re continuing to monitor the former president of the United States. He’s still with his so called opening statement that’s been going on well more than a half an hour, close to 40 minutes already…This has been going on and on.”
I got this in a Wonkette Substack, which is also loads of fun, but not as nice as the Harris-Walz video. I thought I’d leave it up to everyone if they want to read the Wonkette piece, which, again, is hilarious and has the above video. But in case someone’s not up for that sort of humor, the video is set up separately.
Creepy Bigots Declare Tim Walz Race Traitor For ‘White Guy Tacos’ Joke by Rebecca Schoenkopf
Hi grand people. Yesterday I made what I hope will be daily videos. I need to work on the audio, and I apologize for tapping on the desk so a small section of the video. I did not think it was audible and only when I played it back did I realize it. I would love better sound equipment. Ron is wondering if a lapel mic would be better. He also intends to but something behind me to absorb the sounds. Once he saw the video he helped me adjust the lighting. He did not like how the bright light was washing out my lips. He said he was going to buy me lipstick. 😜😁😂💖 Anyway here is the video. If you need CC it takes YouTube a couple of days I think to add that and sometimes it is sloppy at it. Hope you enjoy. Hugs. Scottie
